


Don't Fucking Die Again

by thesparrowspeaks



Series: The Zadison Chronicles [4]
Category: American Horror Story, American Horror Story: Apocalypse, American Horror Story: Coven
Genre: F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Madison Montgomery Needs a Hug, Madison still has a lot of trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 10:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21135416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesparrowspeaks/pseuds/thesparrowspeaks
Summary: Or, Madison is still traumatized from the last timeline. Zoe's there to comfort her.





	Don't Fucking Die Again

Winter was coming to a close, which caused the general spring fever restlessness with the girls, as well as some of the teachers. The warming weather caused Misty to decide the girls deserved a break, something she had brought up daily with Cordelia before finally bringing it up in a council meeting.

“Aw, Miss Delia, why can’t we do a field trip? We can go to the beach or go campin’ with all the girls, give ‘em a break from these walls,” she said during one of the weekly meetings.

“Someone would have to stay to watch the house,” Cordelia replied, clearly not keen on the idea. “We don’t have hired help around here anymore to keep an eye on things.”

“I’ll stay,” Zoe offered. The council turned to look at her. “Seriously. I burn way too easily for any of Misty’s ideas, and quite frankly a few days of quiet to read in peace sound delightful.”

“That’s a generous offer, Zoe, but I still am not sure about-”

“Oh come on Cordelia,” Queenie said. “Let’s live a little. They have been pretty well-behaved, and the nice weather is making it harder to keep their attention. Let’s give the girls a break and take one ourselves, especially since you have someone offering to stay.”

Cordelia looked around at her chosen council and finally sighed. “Alright,” she said, “we’ll schedule a beach trip for the girls.”

“Oh Miss Cordelia, thank you!” Misty said, throwing her arms around the Supreme. “It’ll be so nice to get out and get some sun with these girls, oh I can’t wait, can I be the one to tell ‘em?”

“Sure,” Cordelia replied, unable to suppress a grin while she squeezed Misty. Queenie and Zoe smirked at each other, sharing knowing looks but didn’t say anything.

Misty gave Cordelia one last squeeze before running off to make the announcement. By lunchtime the entire school was buzzing with excitement, as girls all discuss plans and what to wear and wonder which beach their Supreme would take them to.

“Girls,” Cordelia called over dinner that night, “I will announce the final plans as soon as I have made them. For now, it’s business as usual. This is no reason to lose your heads, and I will not hesitate to ground any wayward witches from going on this trip. Miss Zoe is already staying behind and I’m quite sure she would be very annoyed to have her quiet weekend interrupted by misbehaving girls.”

That got the girls’ attention, and soon things were going smoothly. Cordelia decided to schedule the trip for the next weekend, so the girls wouldn’t have to behave for too long, and put Misty in charge of organizing the chaperoning groups. She managed to rent a couple of large passenger vans and it was quickly decided that she and Queenie would be driving, with Misty and Mallory as alternates if they needed a break.

In the midst of the chaos, Zoe relished not having to rush around and looked forward to a quiet weekend at home. At least, she did until Madison announced she wasn’t going on the trip either.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go?” Zoe asked, once more, the night before everyone was due to leave.

“Do you not want me here?” Madison replied.

“I don’t mind you staying. It just seems like a beach trip would be your thing.”

“Usually it would, but with all the new kids?” Madison scoffed. “I’d rather be able to enjoy some peace and quiet. Besides, you’ll be lonely without me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Because I hang out with you all the time. You’d miss me,” Madison said, very matter-of-fact.

Zoe rolled her eyes, assuming it was her way of messing with her as per usual. “Whatever. But I’m sleeping in.”

“Duh.”

“And I do plan to read,” she added, looking at her book collection.

“Ugh, you’re so boring,” Madison groaned. “I’m going to go torment Coco while she packs.”

“Behave,” Zoe called, not looking up from her bookshelf.

“Or what?”

“You didn’t think I bought that hairbrush for me, did you?” She laughed when she saw Madison’s face turn a deep red before she could make it out of the room.

* * *

A chaotic morning later and the house is the quietest it’s ever been. No girls running in the halls, no Supreme yelling at said girls, and no looming evil threat causing everyone anxiety. For the first time, Zoe could enjoy the peace and catch up on her reading, which is what she did the first two days. The final day, though, her roommate couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’m bored,” she whined, flopping onto a couch in the parlor that now served as the television room. Zoe held up a finger while she finished her paragraph, before marking her spot and putting her book down.

“Everyone will be back tomorrow.”

“I’m bored now though.”

“Go find something to do.”

“There’s nothing to do,” Madison pouted. “And you’ve been reading all day.”

“I told you I was going to.”

“You said you were going to read, not all day everyday.”

“You watched me pick out what I was going to read, you had to know it was going to take a while.”

“It’s too quiet here,” Madison huffed.

“Too quiet?” Zoe laughed. “You’ve been complaining since you got back that the house is too loud.”

“Well now it’s too quiet. It reminds me of...never mind,” Madison said, folding herself into the corner of the couch. Suddenly Zoe understood. Madison was annoyed by the younger girls, but the house being this peaceful means there’s nothing to distract her. Nodding decisively, she pulled out her phone.

“What kind of pizza do you want?”

“What?” Madison asked, confused.

“Pizza. What kind?” Zoe asked, pulling up the app for the local pizzeria. “I’m going to order us a pizza, then we’re having a movie night.”

“Any, I guess? But, what about your books?”

Zoe shrugged at her in response. “You’re right, the house is weird when it’s this quiet. Besides, since the girls are gone we won’t have Cordelia checking the ratings of everything we try to watch,” she winked. “I’m going to just order the triple cheese monstrosity we got that one time, and then put on comfier clothes. You can pick the first movie,” she added, tossing the television remote to Madison as she walked out.

About an hour later, the girls were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, pizza devoured and movie playing. Zoe wasn’t surprised that Madison would insist on a violent movie marathon, watching all the movies that Cordelia wouldn’t show during the coven movie nights. She had a couple of years to catch up on, and intended to do so while Cordelia wasn’t around to disapprove.

This movie, however, wasn’t as bad as Zoe expected. There was a lot of violence and shooting scenes, but nothing like the usual horror and gore that Madison preferred. Still, it concerned her when she looked over during one such shooting scene and noticed Madison’s eyes full of tears. Zoe immediately grabbed the remote and hit pause.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Madison quickly wiped her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just a movie.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I’m not,” Madison said defiantly, wiping tears that keep welling up in her eyes.

“Uh huh,” Zoe replied. “We can stop the movie.”

“No, I want to finish it. I’m fine,” Madison insisted.

“Okay,” Zoe replied, shrugging. She looked at the blonde girl for a second before softening slightly. “You can sit with me, if you want.”

“I’m already on the couch with you,” Madison replied with an eye roll.

“No, I know, I mean...like, with me,” Zoe said, gesturing to her side.

“Ew, no.”

“What, we can sleep in the same bed, but we can’t cuddle during a movie?”

“Yeah, basically,” Madison said, folding her arms.

“Come on. I won’t bite...unless you want me to, I seem to remember you enjoying that,” Zoe said teasingly, smirking. Madison flipped her off in response, but after a moment moved closer to Zoe’s side and snuggled up, head resting on Zoe’s chest.

“Tell anyone and you’re dead, Sabrina.”

“I know,” Zoe replied simply, putting an arm around Madison before restarting the movie. Zoe noticed she seemed more settled, and didn’t think much of the tears until a few scenes later when a character was shot in the head. Madison gasped and moved her hands to her mouth, stifling a sob. Zoe paused the movie again.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Madison choked.

“Don’t give me that shit. It’s okay, M. It’s just a movie.”

“It wasn’t though,” Madison replied, and the dam broke. Tears were free falling now, and she buried her face in Zoe’s shirt and cried, holding onto her for dear life. Zoe looked down in confusion but wrapped her arms around her, rubbing her back in soothing circles.

“What wasn’t?” Zoe asked softly, once Madison’s tears started to slow.

“You,” she whispered. “I saw...you were on the ground and bleeding...and I tried to bring you back, but Cordelia made me leave while he was distracted, and then she tried and he...your soul was gone, you were gone.”

“The other timeline?” Zoe asked gently. She’d heard a little about it from Mallory, knew Madison remembered at least a little, but they had never talked about it before. Hell, sure, Madison had told her all about it, but never the Apocalypse.

“Yeah.”

“I didn’t realize you’d remembered.”

“I don’t remember all of it,” Madison said shakily. “But some of it comes in bits and pieces, and in the nightmares. And the second round in Hell, I got set to work in electronics, and all the sample TVs played the worst parts...and other things that I’m pretty sure didn’t happen, but I can’t completely remember anymore. It was awful, so much worse the second time around.”

“I’m sorry,” Zoe whispered.

“But I know that one was real. You were gone.”

“Well, the timeline was fixed. And I’m here, and I’m safe, and I’ve got you, okay?” Zoe tightened her arms around Madison, as if to emphasize the point.

“Okay. Just, don’t fucking die anymore.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

“Good,” Madison sniffed, wiping her eyes.

“I’m changing movies, okay?” Zoe said, reaching for the remote. “I wasn’t really into this one anyway.”

Madison just nodded, sitting up off of Zoe’s lap. She folded her arms, staring at the floor. Zoe ignored this, assuming the girl needed a moment to compose herself, but when she had pulled up the next movie in their queue and Madison still hadn’t moved, she reached a hand out to her knee.

“What is it?” Zoe asked. “Please talk to me.”

“I don’t want to lose you,” the blonde whispered.

“You won’t.”

“I already have. So many times...”

“You won’t anymore. He’s dead, and we know what to watch for to prevent any of his brothers. I’m not losing you again, either,” Zoe whispered, giving Madison’s knee a squeeze.

Madison looked up at Zoe, chewing her lip nervously. Before Zoe could say anything else, she leaned in and kissed her. Zoe froze in shock for a second before returning the kiss, hands reaching up to caress the blonde’s jaw as she deepened the kiss. After a moment they broke apart, resting foreheads together.

“I wondered if you’d ever do that,” Zoe whispered, grinning.

“I...I didn’t come back this soon last time,” Madison told her. “I didn’t know how you’d feel now, now that you’re a lot closer to me leaving you for dead.”

“I haven’t made it obvious?” Zoe asked.

“Yeah,” Madison sighed, sitting back away from Zoe, “but like. Losing Kyle was your Hell, and you ended up losing him because of me-”

“I lost him because of him,” Zoe said firmly. “And it’s probably time I told you about my Hell.” She turned towards Madison, taking both of the blonde’s hands in hers and squeezing gently. Taking a deep breath, she looked into Madison’s eyes.

“Kyle and I did keep breaking up, on a loop, and he did say he didn’t love me over and over,” Zoe began. “But in Hell, he was breaking up with me and saying he didn’t love me, because he only wanted you. And then you’d go off with him, and you both left.” Zoe paused, looking away for a moment before she forced herself to meet Madison’s eyes again.

“My Hell wasn’t just losing Kyle. It was losing you. And it took me actually losing you to realize that that was the true Hell.”

“Why didn’t you tell me before?” Madison asked softly.

“I didn’t realize which part was most upsetting at first,” Zoe admitted. “And by the time I did, I thought you left. And then you came back, but there was this super big story about the Apocalypse and you’d been to Hell twice, and I just...I wanted to give you time before I put this on you.”

Madison rolled her eyes before throwing her arms around the brunette, pulling her in for another kiss. Zoe returned it, hands finding their way to Madison’s waist, pulling her close. Madison shifted forward until she was in Zoe’s lap, straddling her, breaking apart to start pressing kisses to Zoe’s neck while her fingers traced the skin right under the hem of Zoe’s shirt.

“M,” Zoe breathed, stifling a moan as Madison nibbled her ear.

“Hm?”

“Upstairs, now,” Zoe groaned, unable to stifle that sound.

Madison smirked at her and hopped up, taking Zoe’s hand and leading her upstairs.

* * *

The next day, when the coven returned, Zoe and Madison were not surprised to hear Cordelia and Misty announce their relationship over dinner. Only Zoe was surprised when Madison responded by saying, “we’re cuter,” before brazenly kissing her in front of everyone.


End file.
